LG Electronics had an awful third quarter as its net profits plunged 99.2% from last year thanks to poor demand for its handsets. I hate to say it, but LG can’t blame anyone but itself.
LG said it had a 32% dip in third-quarter phone sales. It did sell 28.4 million handsets during the quarter and it is still the third-largest handset maker in the world behind Nokia and Samsung.
The company still ships a ton of low-end handsets around the globe but it has had its proverbial milkshake drunken by the high-end smartphone providers like Apple, Research In Motion and even Samsung.
The company’s recent entries like the LG Ally are okay at best but the company does hope Android will help it gain traction in the smartphone space.
The LG Optimus One has Android in tow and LG expects the device to sell over three million units by the end of the year. It also expects fourth-quarter handset shipments to increase by “high-single-digit” percentage.
The Optimus T is going to hit T-Mobile soon and I expect it to sell a lot of units. It’s not that this Android-powered smartphone is amazing, but it will come with a $30 entry-level price and this could be appealing to many first-time smartphone buyers.
The company will also have an entry-level smartphone for Sprint with the Optimus S and this will be one of the first devices to come with Sprint ID. It is one of the more appealing Sprint ID devices, so look for it to do well.
So, LG has the low and mid-range covered, but what about the super premium market? Maybe it has an opportunity with Windows Phone 7, as there’s no established handset maker to take the crown. We’ve seen some of its Windows Phone 7 products already and these aren’t too shabby.
[Via Wall Street Journal]